From time immemorial, poets and philosophers have looked in awe and wonder at the Universe. Such awe is shared by astrophysicists, too as they seek to understand its nature, and whether it has any limits. In he Infinite Cosmos, Joseph Silk, Savillian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, cosmologist and well-known science writer, brings together the modern understanding of the Universe, its structure, its evolution, and its possible fate, combining the latest from theory and observation. The narrative is peppered with quotations from literature and philosophy, and reflects too on the process of scientific discovery and the implications of our discoveries.

Joseph Silk is Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. He is an experienced and successful author of books on cosmology for the general reader: his published titles include The Big Bang (W. H. Freeman) and The Left Hand of Creation (with J. D. Barrow, published by Oxford University Press).

• 1: Introduction


• 2: Perspectives


• 3: Principles


• 4: Our neighbourhood


• 5: The universe of galaxies


• 6: The invisible cosmos


• 7: Supermassive black holes and the birth of galaxies


• 8: Clusters and clustering


• 9: Space is nearly flat


• 10: Dark energy and the runaway universe


• 11: The panacea of cold dark matter


• 12: From time to time machines


• 13: Origins


• 14: The seeds of structure


• 15: Beyond the beginning


• 16: Towards the infinite universe


• 17: Into the infinite future


• 18: And so to God


• 19: Conclusion


• 20: Glossary


• 21: Index